Verve’s Diva Series a lesson in how to sing

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/09/2003 (8244 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IN a day when fans and critics throw the term diva at singers like Diana Krall and Norah Jones, it’s best to remember the true meaning of the word and the many women who have earned the title.

The Oxford dictionary defines diva as a “distinguished female singer.”

Distinguished is the key, here.

While Krall and Jones, as two examples of a new generation of female jazz singers, have had great success, they haven’t had the impact of the likes of Ella or Billie.

Whether they will, or even can in a much different world, remains to be seen.

But you can get a good look at the real thing on Verve’s new Diva Series, nine albums devoted to the work of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Astrud Gilberto, Nina Simone, Carmen McRae, Dinah Washington, Anita O’Day, Blossom Dearie and a 10th CD which includes tunes by the nine singers and seven others.

And Verve also weighs in with another Ella set, Gold, that isn’t part of the series but includes 22 great tunes, with minimal overlap with the Divas disc.

Overview

The discs are not “definitive” or “ultimate” (who could do such a thing on a single disc for Holiday, for example?) but they are good overviews of the singers’ work.

Fans of any of these nine singers already have the key tunes on other discs, but you’d be hard-pressed to find better single-disc compilations for most of them.

The Verve label is almost as legendary in jazz as the many greats it has recorded, and its musical vaults are deep. (We’ll have to see what the new Vivendi-Univeral/NBC merger means to the storied jazz label.)

Fitzgerald’s Diva disc is 16 tracks from the first 30 years of her recording career from A-Tisket, A-Tasket through the big bands, the Great American Songbook to Mack the Knife. A good look at her early years through the ’50s.

The Billie Holiday album includes classics like God Bless The Child and her signature tune, Strange Fruit, both must-haves. This can’t claim to be the definitive look at the troubled singer’s singular style, but it is a damn good introduction.

What diva series would be complete without Carmen McRae, whose sure sense of melody is evident in recordings with small groups and orchestras in the mid-’50s?

Close your eyes and listen to Dinah Washington sing What A Diff’rence A Day Makes. Does it get much better than that? Try it and see.

The work of Sarah Vaughan, Sassy, has been collected many times before, but this set includes popular hits such as How High The Moon and Misty.

Nina Simone, who died in April, recorded for Verve in the mid-’60s, much of it live and this set includes live versions of studio hits like I Loves You Porgy as well as rarer material.

Worthy

Slightly less well-known, but still worthy of the diva treatment are Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto, Blossom Dearie and Anita O’Day.

Yes, the Gilberto disc includes the hugely successful The Girl From Ipanema and Corcovado.

The Dearie disc misses some obvious choices like Deed I Do and It Might As Well Be Spring, but that makes room for other tunes that had not been issued on CD. It does include favourites I’m Hip and Blossom’s Blues.

The O’Day disc includes well-known songs Honeysuckle Rose, Tea For Two and I Get A Kick Out Of You in a package that mixes ’50s prime and early-’60s material.

Listening to these divas is a lesson on how to be a singer.

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I have one pair of tickets to give away to Friday’s Canadian Jazz Series concert by Andrew Downing and the Great Uncles of the Revolution, 8 p.m., Le Centre culturel franco-manitobain

The first person to e-mail me at the address below this morning after 9 a.m. wins.

Tickets for the Canadian Jazz Series are $15 including taxes and fees and are available at the CCFM box office (340 Provencher Blvd.), at the door, or by calling 233-8972.